My initial reaction to this particular vape flavor is that there is definitely menthol in it. One odd thing to me has been that most mentholated flavors are more than a bit overpowering on the menthol and I was a former menthol cigarette smoker. You get the hints of the tobacco for sure. In fact, the tobacco flavor is quite noticeable and strong. But you also get a quite noticeable and strong menthol. I've been vaping this for a tank or two and for whatever reason it seems to me that the menthol is becoming more and more pronounced as I vape it. And I do tend to shake my bottles well before every tank fill.

On the basic flavor level I'd say it tastes pretty good. But I can't help but think there is, as there always is in any mentholated flavor, way too much menthol.

By no means is this a dig against Green Forest Vapor Shop. In fact, I shop there often since it is local to me, and for the most part I have liked their vapor flavors. One of my favorites is their Blueberry Cheesecake one. The fact is that I have yet to find any mentholated flavor of vape juice that is actually good. Not a single juice maker I have found to date can match a real menthol mix that mimics and actual menthol cigarette.

Unless, perhaps, you smoked Kool cigarettes, which were always overpowering when it came to menthol. When I smoked I smoked variations of the brand of Newport. Newport, Newport Lights, Newport Menthol Gold, and Newport Smooth Select. That particular brand of mentholated cigarettes is actually mild in the menthol category and that may be why since there are many other brands of menthol cigarettes which are much more "minty."

If you like a very strong menthol with a tobacco flavor, and what I think is a hint of sweet here as well, then this particular vape juice flavor may be right up your alley. But honestly for me it is one I don't think I will buy again. It's just too strong, and will probably wind up in a mix I use for juices I don't like just to "use them up."

They have an online site you can indeed buy from, and they have several house juices worth giving a go. For me, Royal Tobacco is just not my cup of tea. Again, way too much menthol, and to be quite honest, the more I vape it, the more sickening it is becoming.

Green Forest, I think you missed the mark on this one. You should have called this Royal Menthol or something like that. Again, not a dig against the maker of this juice. Just an honest opinion on this particular flavor which honestly did nothing for me.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Well, if you went to the front desk of whatever hotel you happen to be staying at and ask this question, certainly and most likely the answer is going to be, "No. You cannot vape in your hotel room." It's an issue of technicality even though essentially the vape will leave little to no residual odor, will not damage the room the way smoking may, and has no residual harm or effect on future guests of the hotel.

But you can indeed vape in your non-smoking hotel room. You just need to take a couple of precautions so as not to get caught and MAYBE wind up paying some sort of a cleaning fee.

A question was asked by a YouTuber, Vaping at Pete's Place, which essentially posed the question as to whether or not vaping would set off a smoke alarm in your room. He even conducted an experiment in providing the answer, complete with a smoke alarm in hand and at the ready to demonstrate.

In a nutshell the alarm did in fact go off. However, this was only when he blew his vapor directly into the smoke alarm. When he was at a distance, the smoke alarm was not triggered. He did mention that in some instances, if the vapor becomes too thick in the room, at some point the alarm may also inadvertently be set off.

Therein leads me to those precautions. I have been lucky enough to have hotel rooms where you can open a window. That's first and foremost. But even if you can't do that, most hotel room bathrooms do have at least a fan you can turn on, and certainly you can vape into that. It isn't totally effective in sucking all of the vapor out of the air. But the little bit that might not get sucked up into the fan will quickly dissipate anyway. So, no harm no foul there.

Worst case scenario, if the hotel were to for some reason call you after your stay and ask about any odor in the room, enough of the e-juices are either fruity, creamy, or perfumy in nature. So you could simply say, "Maybe that was my hand cream?" or something like that. "I was using a fruity shampoo," could be another response. "Maybe it was my cologne?"

Bottom line is you can indeed get away with vaping to your heart's content in a non-smoking hotel room. Just don't go too overboard as to set off any alarms, or red flags.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

There are probably hundreds of videos on the Internet all detailing how and why you should clean your Smok Alien 220W e-juice tank. Yet still, getting on the bandwagon is something that is always widely recommended when it comes to YouTube and making videos in general. Hundreds of those other videos might also not have the same exposure your video may. So to that end I decided to make my own contribution to the process of cleaning your Smok Alien 220W tank and hopefully you find it helpful.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Admittedly, I am new to this whole vaping thing. I only quit smoking a couple of months ago and currently use a Smok Alien 220W mod, and so far have to say I have been pretty satisfied with the idea of it, and even the flavors. The latter of which I did not think I would like since I actually liked the taste of cigarettes.

But I do like blueberry cheesecake. The real stuff. So when I saw there was a flavor available in that offering of course I had to give it a go. It was not disappointing at all. In fact, Blueberry Cheesecake vape juice from Green Forest Vape Shop in Belleville, Illinois has become a favorite of mine. Respectably this juice actually does taste quite a lot like actual blueberry cheesecake. I am sure there are other vape shops that offer this flavor, it is of course not unique, but as I like my beer I think I like my vapes—so far. That is, I enjoy trying some of the different offerings from different vape shops, and since I travel a lot, I do get to see a few shops around that are worth giving a go and will likely write about what flavors I find to like and give those shops a bit of a plug. Besides, if you have followed me, you know I am a huge fan of supporting small business, and these vape shops are all of course, small business. They all need some love, and if we are part of the vaping community we want to keep these shops alive so we can all enjoy the benefits of vaping over smoking.

If you want to check them out, or check out this fantastic flavor you can find them here. I think their house juices are reasonably priced, most of the flavors I have tried I have liked. The staff is friendly and helpful. They are worth supporting and checking out.

Here's a little video for YouTube I did on this particular flavor. Unfortunately I got the website wrong. But no worries. It was correct here.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

A while back there happened to be a few sites that came along that paid a little bit, and were fun to write for mainly because you could write about just about anything you wanted to. The "articles," and I use that word lightly, did not have to be informative, or explanatory, exploratory, or anything else of that nature. I likened these sites to expanded versions of Twitter or Facebook. You started off with that one simple thought in mind, "What's on your mind?" And you simply went with that and wrote about it.

People would come by, read, like, and comment. It was as simple as that.

Of course what made those sites die a slow and painful death was not that they did not require phenomenal content, or even that the vast majority of writers for those sites could barely write their own names. It was the business model that they used that was simply not sustainable. They were desperate to attract writers. Any writers. And they paid for those likes and comments in order to entice people to not only dance around the site and the posts, but to keep on posting. Even though when I started on these sites I knew they wouldn't last, I wrote for them anyway knowing that before they were laid to rest I would at least cash in on a little bit of that enticement. That made it worth it even if it wasn't ever going to last.

That all aside, I did enjoy reading many of the daily posts. Even the ones which were just about what someone had for dinner. You got to know people through their posts, and while the content was not all extremely entertaining, there was still enough entertainment value, and even perhaps enough of a feel of being that proverbial fly on the wall, that it kept you coming back.

I post often for Twitter and for Facebook, and of course I maintain a few blogs here on BlogSpot. But I kind of longed to go back to those old sites, to that old format, to just simply post whatever is on my mind. To post what I did today, what just happened to me a minute ago, and perhaps what I plan to do to tomorrow. It was also an opportunity and a great place to share a little bit of what else I do on the Internet like music, YouTube videos, or whatever else strikes my fancy.

To that end I thought what the heck? Why not? Why not just start a blog whereas the aim is simply to do exactly what I described above. A blog about nothing and everything all at once, and a blog that requires no set word count, or post count, or even great and phenomenal content, but at the very least content which someone out there might find interesting enough to keep up with.

My life can get quite interesting actually. I am a bit of a character for those who know me.

So what the hell is the Springboard Journal? It's a blog about nothing and everything in the daily life of me. If you want to come on over and see what's going on, I'd be happy for you to join me. The aim is to post as often as things come up that I care to post about. Again, about nothing and everything. Should be fun, and we'll see where it goes. And knowing me, the blog will probably be all over the place from funny happenings, to fun times, to not so fun times, to all out rants about things that might be irking me at any given time.

Let me just say that Suicide Girls, which happens to be an alternative pin-up site, is a really cool site that was started to bring to the masses some of the most beautiful women in the world that you might otherwise not get the pleasure of seeing because some big wig in a high-rise building in the middle of New York decides that only he has the ability to define what happens to be beautiful. The truth is that women comes in all shapes and sizes, all forms and styles, and being even more truthful, I like women of all types. Beauty is not so easily defined for me. In fact, I'm a sucker for some of the chunkier women in the world.

So, I thought from time to time I might want to share some of that beauty with you, faithful reader. I hope that I have not overstepped my bounds, or dirtied up what was supposed to be just a simple opinion blog that asks a question and provides my answer to it. And no, it's not a ploy to drive in

more traffic just to get a few more bucks from it all. Although, more money is always a good thing. I don't think anyone can argue with that.

On to the topic of question.

Turtle is one of the great women who adorn the site, and while all of her sets are not as golden as was her set Life on Mars? from which these photos were taken for, it was truly a knockout as intriguing, scintillating, and as interesting to look at as was the recent 10-round knockout fight between Mayweather and McGregor recently which Mayweather ultimately won in the end.

As of this writing Turtle is only a hopeful, which just means SG has not yet bought one of her sets. But my guess is that if she keeps up work like this, it is only a matter of time before she happens to become a full fledged Suicide Girl.

I, for one, am hopeful for that. I think she more than deserves that title as much as Mayweather deserves his title for not losing a fight over the course of his professional career.

I think what captures it for me here is many-fold. Her yes. That subtle naughty look in her facial expression, the beautiful paleness accentuated by the lighting in this set. The brilliance of her red hair, and the straight cut bangs. And those feet. Yes. Her feet.

I'm not a foot fetish guy. Don't get me wrong. It's not like that for me. But certain women just have feet, that when captured at just the right angle, do capture the attention for me. And in this set her feet most certainly do exactly that. I have often said, "You know a chic is hot when even her feet make you do a double take."

Either way, and for whatever reason you find Turtle to be an amazing woman, and an amazing SG model, I think checking out Suicide Girls is a definite must, and while you're there, checking out

Turtle among other truly amazing SG's is definitely worth your time, and the nominal cost of subscribing to the site.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Let me start off by being very clear that I actually mostly find Super 8 locations to be better than expected for the money. It is a value hotel, and so I am not expecting top notch anymore than I would expect a stellar steak at Denny's for breakfast.

So where is this particular Super 8 location? 5710 Challenger Parkway in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The perk? Well, it does offer a smoking room for anyone looking for a room like that. And if you are a member of Wyndham rewards as I am since I travel often for business, it is a part of the Wyndham Resorts family of hotels, and so you earn points for your stays which can be used to either get discounts on room rates, free rooms, or other perks like gift cards.

I happen to be a diamond member. Again, because I travel a lot for business.

In fact, very recently I cashed in 25,000 points of my 75,000 point balance for a Visa gift card valued at $100. But that's for another day. But it is certainly a perk. I have no affiliation with Wyndham and don't even own stock in the company anymore...so I am not trying to sell you on anything. But do check out the rewards program if you travel a lot, and there are other hotels in the Wyndham family like Baymont Inn for example which are a bit more higher quality.

I paid less than $60 per night for this particular stay. Not awful, and about right for a Super 8 depending on where you are.

What's in my room?

Computer desk

Single cup coffee maker

Refrigerator

Microwave

Not all Super 8's have a refrigerator, and not all have a microwave, so I call this a plus. Honestly, after a hard day on the road and conducting sales calls with customers I enjoy unwinding with a beer or two, so a refrigerator is a big plus in my book. It's also nice to have a microwave because often times I will indulge in a pizza on at least one of the nights, and while cold pizza is great, sometimes being able to take the chill off a bit in the microwave is an added bonus.

It's especially nice if I opt for Chinese food, which I often do as well on my business trips.

As for the room quality at this particular location at 5710 Challenger Parkway, Fort Wayne, Indiana, I'd say it is actually quite subpar for even a Super 8. For one thing the building is a bit dated, and the rooms are essentially outside, so there is no hope for security at this location. The access doors to the upper levels do have a card reader, but there are no locks. Even that makes sense since the lower level is all outside, so the entire building is pretty much accessible to anyone who could break a door in.

The room also seemed a bit dirty honestly. In fact, there is a sitting chair close by the bed which is positioned well to watch TV if you don't want to lay in the bed and watch. But from the looks of it, honestly I don't think I'll be sitting in it. The arms are blackened, and in fact the whole chair just looks used and abused.

My best assessment is that for the price it is what is to be expected even if I have paid a similar price for a better room at other Super 8 locations. But that aside, if I ever have to make a stay in Fort Wayne, Indiana again, the Super 8 at 5710 Challenger Parkway will not be on my list of places to stay. Next time through town I might choose a Baymont Inn, or see if there is a higher end Wyndham offering in Fort Wayne.

What hotels are associated with Wyndham?

Dolce

Wyndham Grand

Wyndham

Wyndham Garden

Tryp

Wingate

Hawthorn

Microtel

Ramada

Baymont Inn

Days Inn

Super 8

Howard Johnson

Travelodge

Knights Inn

Overall recommendation for the Super 8 at 5710 Challenger Parkway in Fort Wayne, Indiana? I do not recommend this hotel.

About Me

Jim Bauer currently resides with his wife in Southern Illinois, recently transplanted from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Writing is a passion, from the serious commentary to the blabbering ramble. "So long as the pen keeps moving, life is good." He also writes music and plays guitar. His original song "102 Idle Stones" can be found on Amazon MP3 and iTunes among other places. He is also editor of the horror fiction anthology, "Dark Whispers," as Ivan S. Graves, available in Kindle format.